Tricky Situation

[Sir_Matthew]

I'm sure this has been covered here before, but I wasn't sure what to search under.

I am nearing the end of the tracking stage for my debut CD, which I'm recording on a Roland VS-880. It's an older one, so it's not compatible with the Roland burners. I could buy a standalone burner, but here's the catch:

I'd like to fade each song into a sound effect section, then fade the next song in (yes, I listen to a LOT of Pink Floyd). What's the best equipment setup, IYHO, to make this happen from a mixing/burning standpoint?

I can get access to Sound Forge, but I read elsewhere on this site that Sound Forge couldn't burn a whole disc at a time, only a song at a time. Is this accurate? If so, that option probably won't work.

Would I need to burn each song, then use two CD decks to fade songs in & out while I burn the album? That opens the field for a lot of potential error, & I don't think it would embed a track listing.

Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.

(I have yet to buy any equipment without consulting this site, so I'm expecting greatness. No pressure...)

[Emeric]

One easy way I see of doing it would be:

- Get your 2 track mix into your computer, I assume you have a good way of doing this since you mention soundforge. This would be your full album, I think N-Track can handle that. (Can your computer)

- Download N-Track www.fasoft.com

- Import your stereo mixes to a stereo track within N-Track.

- Import your sound FX tracks to a spare track(s) in N-Track.

Using volume envelopes, or plain editing you could balance your mix and the sound FX.

Export the stereo mix.

Do furthur editing, mastering etc with Soundforge.

Burn with some decent software, nero, or Wavelab's integrated burner - audio montage etc.

Thinking about this, wavelab *might* be able to do this all, bypassing the need for N-track. It isn't cheap though. Most affordable route would be n-track/nero.

[charger]

But you want track markers, right, and to be able to adjust fades? Any good audio CD burning program (that means one that WASN'T included with your CD Burner, unless it's a really nice one) will do this. SoundForge's CDArchitect and Steinberg's Wavelab come to mind, there are probably some others.

[Sir_Matthew]

See, I wondered about Sound Forge. It seems that it should be able to burn the whole disc with track markers, but I read elsewhere on this site that it couldn't.

I'm having a new computer built that can handle Sound Forge & other audio programs, so I can't test it out yet, but it would be strange to me if that program (which is rather more expensive than N-Track) couldn't do what I need it to do.

Charger, have you personally used SF to burn a whole disc?

[charger]

Yes, I have used CD Architect to burn whole discs. It's an extension to SoundForge, but calling it an extension really doesn't explain it. The whole app kind of changes once you launch it. Anyway, I am unclear as to whether it's supported anymore or not, I've heard different things. Maybe the 5.0 version of SoundForge has the capability built in? I don't know, I stuck with 4.3, was happy with it. Anyway, it lets you place track markers, do fades between tracks, adjust track volumes, overlap them, all graphically. A pretty full-featured product, but I'm not sure if it's still supported.

[Sir_Matthew]

Okay, I feel much better. Once I get my box built, I'll give 'er a go. Thanks!

[Queue]

Sadly, SF 5 does not support CD Architect. The built-in CD burning feature is Track-at-Once, and is a far cry from the glory of CD Architect. But if you kept SF 4.x, you can still use it (get out of SF5 when you're done all your tweaking), and definitely do what you are talking about. You can burn a one .wav indexed CD with Nero, I'm told, but I haven't tried, as I continue to use CD Architect.

Queue

[Alchemist3k]

Certainly Wavelab 3.0 is a quality piece of software and is designed specifically for the purposes of mastering and burning. It is true that it isn't the cheapest piece of software around, in fact it is as expensive as Cubase 5, but sometimes when you care about your work and want it to be done right you find that the extra outlay is worth the money.

Wavelab review

[Sir_Matthew]

I can't remember which version of Sound Forge I got, but now I'm hoping it's 4. We shall see.

I've seen mention of Nero in other threads. How does it compare to SoundForge? Or N-Track, for that matter?

[Queue]

Nero Burning, from Ahead Software, is really just a CD burning package. I think they've added a sound file editor and some other stuff, but it is apples and oranges with Sound Forge and Wavelab.

Nero = CD burning with (some) sound editing capabilities
SF and Wavelab = Editing with (some) CD Burning capabilities

Queue